By SONJA KOREMANS
Parents urged to ignore anti-vaccination groups…
WARWICK is one of 11 areas in Queensland which are failing to meet immunisation targets, leaving thousands of children exposed to potentially fatal diseases.
The city and wider Darling Downs, including Clifton and Allora, have among the lowest vaccination rates in the state for under five-year-old kids, leading the country’s peak medical body to call for parents to take action.
The Australian Medical Association said a staggering number of children in the region were not immunised, and blamed the anti-vaccination movement on the Darling Downs.
The Sunshine and Gold Coasts have also been identified as anti-vaccination black spots.
AMA president Shaun Rudd said in some demographics, up to 15 per cent of children on the Darling Downs were left unprotected against whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella.
Overall, almost 8 per cent of one-year-olds and 7 per cent of five-year-olds were not fully inoculated in the region, he said.
“We surmise that there are a number of parents in these areas who are opposed to vaccinating their children and that’s why immunising has slipped below target health levels,“ Dr Rudd said.
“These vaccination objectors pose a great risk to the community.“
The AMA identifies those people who oppose vaccination as the ’worried well’.
“There are parents who are concerned that inoculations may leave their children with developmental disorders such as autism, or spread the disease they’re supposed to prevent, but all evidence shows this is not the case.“
Other children were exposed to potentially fatal diseases because parents forget to protect them with booster shots,“ Mr Rudd said.
“It is these parents who we want to encourage, as we know it is very hard to turn around the conscientious objectors, but parents who are unaware or have forgotten are the ones who we want to make access easier,“ Dr Rudd said.
He said the AMA had called on the Queensland Government to provide mobile vaccination vans and free transport to immunisation hubs.
Dr Rudd said getting more GPs into communities would allow them to counter the myths and misinformation about vaccinations.
Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service also said it was concerned that children in the region were being exposed to serious illness because of parents’ beliefs.
“Some regions in Queensland show a greater resistance to immunisation, and it appears it is more to do with parents’ social ideology than access to doctors or the economic factors,“ she said.
“Some of the state’s lowest socio-economic regions have the highest rates of immunisation,“ she said.
It comes as Queensland Health announced its was expecting more measles cases this month.
Queensland Health confirmed the 37th case of measles this year after a person with the disease arrived in Brisbane from Port Moresby this month.
In a separate incident, a Queensland paramedic also contracted the infection last month.
The number of people being diagnosed with measles in Australia hit a 16-year-high last year as scores of travellers brought the potentially fatal disease into the country and unvaccinated children fell victim to it.
National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System figures data shows 340 measles cases were recorded in Australia last year, the highest number since 1998.
For more information on vaccinating your kids go to www.immunise.health.gov.au.
